Routes to Open Access
The Microbiology Society is a membership charity and not-for-profit publisher. Submissions to our titles support the entire community – ensuring that we continue to provide events, grants and professional development for microbiologists at all career stages.
We recognise that Open Access (OA) is increasing the availability and visibility of research around the world and is increasingly mandated by policies of institutions, funding bodies and governmental departments.
At the Society we work to amplify our members' voices. Wherever you are in the world, we have a home for your microbiology research in one of our titles. Below you will find all the options we provide to our authors to publish OA in any of our six titles.
Publish and Read
Publish and Read is our Transformative Agreement model which has been in place since 2020 across our full portfolio, helping institutions to make the transition to an increasingly OA publishing landscape. Publish and Read is designed to provide a frictionless OA experience for authors and maximum value for institutions, with minimum administration. It offers institutions an alternative to both subscriptions and article processing charges (APCs).
Why Publish and Read
It is a mixed model that allows institutions prepayment of an annual fee for unlimited OA publishing and full access to all paywalled content across the full portfolio of our journals. Corresponding authors from Publish and Read institutions enjoy all the benefits of OA publishing without any further payment or administration.
Benefits of Publish and Read
Institutions that sign up for a Publish and Read agreement and their researchers benefit from:
- Uncapped OA publishing: any article published in Society titles where the corresponding author is from a Publish and Read institution will be OA by default under a Creative Commons CC-BY licence.
- Unlimited usage: any user associated with a Publish and Read institution can access the entire archive of Society content, back to 1947, for reading and for text and data mining.
- Publish and Read is designed to be simple for all involved. Corresponding authors simply submit using their institutional email address. Eligible authors are matched against the list of Publish and Read institutions and the article is routed for the fee-free option.
For more information on this model, including pricing, see our Publish and Read page.
See if your institution is signed up in our list of Publish and Read institutions.
If you have further questions, check our FAQs page.
Subscribe to Open (S2O)
At the Microbiology Society we are aiming to transition our titles the Journal of Medical Microbiology and the Journal of General Virology to OA via the S2O model from 2025.
Subscribe to Open (known as ‘S2O’) is an impactful, simple and compliant model. It is internationally recognised and provides a sustainable approach to transitioning subscription-based journals to OA, one year at a time.
It is based on existing subscription processes, where subscriptions enable the journal’s transition to OA, meaning that articles published are freely available for all to access.
What does this mean?
Under the S2O model, subscribers to Journal of Medical Microbiology and the Journal of General Virology are offered continued access to their subscribed titles through the standard renewal process, which takes into account a library’s current budgetary commitments. Provided that enough subscriptions are renewed, the journal is moved to OA for that year. This means that the content of that year becomes openly accessible under Creative Commons CC-BY licence, available for everyone to read.
The following year, subscribers are able to renew via the normal renewal process. If enough subscribers choose to renew again, the journal maintains its OA status for another year.
Why S2O?
S2O is designed to support the sustainable transition to OA through the regular renewals process with full transparency and no additional costs. Subscribing institutions have full access to the journal archive, as well as unlimited OA publishing in that title, with no additional administration. For journals with a strong existing subscriber base, S2O offers a stable model to enable OA publishing in the title without relying on a less predictable APC-only model, supporting increased usage of Society content worldwide whilst protecting the journal’s viability into the future.
Authors not covered by either S2O or a Publish and Read agreement will be able to publish OA via an APC. Our inclusivity policy makes provision for waivers available to those authors who are not in a position to pay an APC – see our APCs section below for more information.
Benefits of S2O
- S2O titles open published content to be accessed by anyone, anywhere in the world, whilst ensuring that the journal can continue to serve its community for years to come.
- Subscribing institutions retain guaranteed access to S2O journal archives (subscriber access only).
- Subscribing institutions secure uncapped OA publishing for their researchers.
- S2O supports our wider portfolio transition to OA, providing broader access to our content and increased usage for authors.
- Via S2O, subscribing institutions actively support the transition of our journals to OA without any additional cost or administration, using the existing renewals process.
For more details on the Microbiology Society S2O model, please see our FAQs page.
Article Processing Charges (APCs)
Authors who wish to publish Open Access but are not at a Publish and Read institution (or a subscribing institution for S2O journals) may do so by paying an article processing charge (APC). Gold OA allows authors to make published articles immediately available online under a Creative Commons CC-BY licence. More information can be found on our publishing costs page.
Support for APCs
At the Society we acknowledge that not all authors receive financial support to publish their work OA. We are pleased to participate in the HINARI programme (part of Research4Life), meaning that corresponding authors in Group A or B countries are automatically entitled to a full APC waiver in our fully OA journals, which can be applied by authors during the check-out process upon acceptance.
In addition, we can offer support (including free or highly discounted OA articles) in covering the cost of APCs when an author needs assistance to publish in our OA titles. More information can be found on our publishing costs page.
Self-archiving
We encourage authors to deposit the Author-Accepted Manuscript (the accepted version of their manuscript yet to be copyedited or typeset, also known as AAM) in their institutional repository or in a recognised subject repository of their choice under a CC-BY licence to comply with funder and institutional mandates (also known as ‘Green OA’). When depositing your AAM, please include an archiving statement on the title page and include a link to the final published article, known as the Version of Record. The statement should read:
'© [name of Author(s), year]. The definitive peer reviewed, edited version of this article is published in [name of Journal, volume, issue, year, DOI].'
